My other discovery from the Mercury Prize is jazz pianist, Zoe Rahman. Her album, Melting Pot, is a very different offering indeed to that of Guillemots.

The first thing to note about Ms. Rahman is that she has hair to die for. When she’s sat on a piano stool it reaches the floor. So I’m jealous, but then Rahman has other talents that I don’t have either. And if I were in her position I’d be wondering why my record company thought that the most important thing to highlight about my work on the album cover is the length of my hair.

People are welcome to argue all they like about whether I am qualified to review books, but I think there’s little doubt about my lack of qualifications to review jazz piano music. Indeed, I suspect most serious musicians would claim that I’m no more qualified to review their work than I am to review a book written in Mandarin. Certainly it isn’t easy.

Reviewing rock and pop albums is a lot easier because such material tends to rely largely on catchy tunes, something that even my tin ear can recognize. Jazz piano doesn’t have the same basis at all, and if you are listening out for tunes then almost the whole of Melting Pot can sound pretty much the same. And that, of course, would leave me sounding like some old fogey complaining, “that pop music, it all sounds the same to me.”

So what can I say. Rahman is clearly exceptionally talented. I spent enough time trying to learn to play the piano (and failing dismally) to know that. Her music is very restful and relaxing. It probably also requires careful listening to in order to get the best out of it, and it is therefore rather shameful then I’m likely to use it mainly as background music when I’m working. More than that, I can’t really say because I lack the vocabulary and the analytical tools. I’ll just note that the final track, “Muchhe Jaoa Dinguli”, with its clear Middle-Eastern rythyms, is memorable because it is so different.

Somehow I can’t see me finding myself humming Rahaman’s music the way I already am with Guillemots, but I suspect I’ll be playing her music just as much.